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SIMPSONVILLE, SC (AP) – Almost everyone in this small South Carolina town has a theory for the city's $ 1 billion mystery: who won the $ 1.5 billion jackpot announced last October?
Perhaps the winner was so overwhelmed by seeing the winning numbers that he died instantly? Maybe the winner is on the run from the police and fears a background check? Maybe this winning ticket fell out of a car sun visor, found in a garbage can and is forever buried at the Twin Chimneys landfill site. Or maybe the winner continues to live as before, before quietly taking the lump sum of $ 878 million.
Less than two months from the horizon, time flies. Whoever won the second largest lottery in US history has up to 17 hours. On April 19, enter the South Carolina Lottery office in Columbia with the ticket signed and claim the jackpot.
The winning ticket was sold to KC Mart in Simpsonville between October 20 and the draw at 11 pm On Oct. 23, store employee Jee Patel said that agents from the State Law Enforcement Division were waiting in the parking lot when workers came to open 6 hours the next day.
"We did not even know we had sold the winner," said Patel, adding that the agents immediately took the tapes. "We did not see them, I do not know when we sold them or who we sold them to."
Simpsonville is a fast growing suburb of about 22,000 people south of Greenville. The store is away from the suburban core on a two-lane highway after the four-lane stop and several newly built subdivisions. Everyone who entered the store on a cold winter day decided that the winning ticket was sold to someone living or working nearby.
Christian Porchak lives a mile away from KC Mart, where he bought tickets for the big draw. He felt a brief rush when he heard the winner was sold. Just as quickly, however, his hopes were disappointed when he checked his numbers again and again: "I know I've checked all the tickets I've bought." But there's this nagging feeling to think that I may not have checked each ticket. "
As with all great mysteries, there are very distant conspiracy theories. Chris Watson prepares KC Mart's hot dogs and hamburgers. He wonders if Mega Millions has already planned to award the jackpot, but rather use it as an excuse to sell more tickets.
"What I do not understand is why the money has to be poured in. Why can not they just use it for another jackpot?" Watson said.
If the note remains unclaimed, the price of $ 1.5 billion will be redistributed to the 44 states as well as the US Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia. A big loser could be South Carolina, which had predicted the winner a $ 61 million windfall of income taxes, but which had to remove that estimate, about 0.5% of the annual spending plan of the company. State.
All taxpayers from South Carolina could have an online dinner. One legislator has included in the state budget a proposal for a rebate of up to $ 50 to each person who taxes income, but only if the state collects its taxes from the lottery winner.
Another big loser would be the store owner, who will not receive his $ 50,000 bonus if the ticket is not claimed.
But Patel said the store had sharply increased sales in the weeks following the sale of the winning ticket and continued to attract people who thought they would be lucky. That's why the half-dozen signs stating "We've sold a winning ticket for a million-dollar and worth $ 1.5 billion" will remain in place, Patel said.
Jackpots, even bigger ones, have never been claimed. But this one dominates them all.
Gordon Medenica, senior director of the Mega Millions consortium, said the biggest unclaimed Mega Millions jackpot was a $ 68 million prize in 2002. This ticket was sold in New York. Two winning tickets were sold for a $ 103.5 million jackpot in 2002, but a single ticket – sold in Indiana – has never been claimed, said Wendy Ahlm at the New Lottery. -Mexico who currently supervises Powerball.
States differ in the length of time players must claim their prize. Medenica said that he was not expecting someone to come forward immediately. Winners often first receive legal and financial advice, and he has heard that he will wait until 2019 for tax reasons. And in South Carolina, as in a handful of other states, winners can remain anonymous, avoiding publicity.
"Now, we are sort of running out of reasons why anyone would want to wait so long," he said.
But in the past, the laureates were waiting to move forward.
The biggest jackpot in US history, a $ 1.586 billion Powerball prize, was won on January 13, 2016 by buyers in California, Tennessee and Florida. The Californian winners did not appear until six months later, officials said.
"The higher the price, the longer it lasts," said Russ Lopez of the California Lottery. "It's an incredible amount of money, their life will change."
Back in Simpsonville, theories continue to swirl. Lloyd Hall cuts hair in the city. According to a rumor, the winner would have worked in a large transmission plant, but was waiting for it now, because he did not want his colleagues to know it. According to another rumor, an office pool at the plant would have bought the ticket but are now arguing while the lawyers are negotiating.
"I'm starting to think we'll never know," said Hall.
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Rhonda Shafner, an Associated Press researcher, contributed to this report.
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